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Water Regulations Ease, but Drought Still Dominates in California

/in /by /89.3 KPCC (Pasadena)by By Sanden Totten

The past few day have been big for water news. First, Governor Jerry Brown announced plans to ease up on some water restrictions, then Southern California’s Metropolitan Water District said it’ll end limits on the amount of water local suppliers can purchase.

All of this comes as the U.S Drought Monitor reported that Del Norte County and parts of Humboldt and Siskiyou counties are actually drought free. This news is welcome relief after four years of brutal drought.

 

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BLOG: Droughtlandia

/in /by /Pacific Standard (Santa Barbara)by Jeremy Miller

In a rumpled suit jacket and faded jeans, Giles Slade stands atop an earthen levee and looks out over a vast expanse of water. It’s mid-November, and the Fraser River runs gray and glasslike into the Salish Sea. Overhead, airplanes flash through low clouds, descending into Vancouver International Airport. To our backs is the city of Richmond, British Columbia, splayed out on the table-flat delta, the majority of its homes and buildings set just a few feet above sea level.

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Desalination Plant in Carlsbad Toured by Santa Barbara County Leaders

/in /by /KEYT (Santa Barbara)by By John Palminteri Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Santa Barbara County leaders have toured an ocean water desalination plant in Carlsbad as part of their investigation into the costs and production capabilities involved in this facility. It went on line last year.

The trip was attended recently by  Supervisor Peter Adam, County Executive Officer Mona Miyasato and members of the staff. The facility is on a six-acre site and the plant is operating continuously.   Operating costs range from $49-$54 million a year. It makes about 50 million gallons of water daily.

 

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San Diego County Dams Old but Still Passing Muster

/in /by /inewssource (San Diego)by By Joe Yerardi

San Diego County has 54 dams, and the state judges them all to be safe, an impressive feat considering that the average dam is 62 years old.

inewsource filed Public Records Act requests with the California Division of Safety of Dams and 19 dam-owning public agencies, such as water districts, requesting the latest inspection reports and emergency action plans, if one existed. According to the reports, all 54 dams were “judged safe for continued use.” The county’s oldest is Helix Water District’s Lake Cuyamaca dam, an earthen structure constructed in 1887.

 

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OPINION: San Diego is a Model for Water Conservation

/in /by /San Jose Mercury News

As California seeks solutions to its complex water needs, one barrier is the perpetuation of misconceptions about the differences between north and south. While there are important distinctions, there are also significant areas of common ground.

Indeed, San Diego County and the Bay Area share a commitment to making the most of every drop of water, as well as a common desire for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to meet the coequal goals of water supply reliability and environmental restoration.

 

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OPINION: Water Solutions Debate Continues as we Go Thirsty

/in /by /Redding Record Searchlightby By Greg Beale

So now we are deluged by calls to raise Shasta Dam and build the Sites Reservoir. A previous writer explains how we simply have to build higher dams and the Sites Reservoir. An editorial reluctantly falls in line with the raise-the-dam argument. Momentum seems to be building.

This whole conversation boils down to climate deniers wanting more reservoirs and global warming adherents wanting none. So, once again, we debate while we go thirsty.

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Visitors Enjoy Higher Water Levels High at Lake Shasta

/in /by /Redding Record Searchlightby By Nathan Solis

The sounds of watercraft and families enjoying Lake Shasta on Sunday carried across the water against a vibrant backdrop of the tree line. The scene is a far cry from last year’s low water levels on the lake, which became a visual indicator of the state-wide drought and the impact to the local environment.

This time last year recorded water levels at Shasta Dam were half of what they are today, according to the Department of Water Resources.

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Countries Turn Saltwater into Drinkable Water Using Solar Power

/in /by /The Daily Star (Dhaka, Bangladesh) Mentioned: Carlsbad Desalination Plant

Can countries stop burning fossil fuels to supply fresh water? Work is on its way to answer that very question. The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park under construction near Dubai, goes into operation this month.

A desalination facility which is run by an array of solar panels and batteries, the system will produce about 13,200 gallons of drinking water a day for use on site, reports Business Insider. Hundreds of desalination plants are planned or under way worldwide because fresh water is increasingly precious.

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BLOG: Climate Change Not Causing More Droughts, Deaths or Wars; Unlikely to Harm Plankton

/in /by /Somewhat Reasonable - Heartland Institute (Arlington Heights, Ill.)by By H. Sterling Burnett

A study by the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) finds little evidence purported human-caused climate change is increasing the number or intensity of droughts or heatwaves in the United Kingdom or worldwide.

Citing research in Nature Scientific Data from scientists at the University of California, the GWPF study notes, if anything, there has been a slowly declining trend in drought since 1982. Even the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has found it almost impossible to attribute changes in drought since the mid-twentieth century to anthropogenic warming.

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OPINION: Latino Leaders in the West Focusing on Water Issues

/in /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs) by By Helen M. Noriega and Cristian Markovich

As Californians continue to face a mounting list of significant water challenges – including an aging infrastructure, growing population, degraded ecosystems, over reliance on groundwater, disjointed management of water resources by government agencies, and not least of all climate change and drought – we are clearly going to need all the help we can get to meet these challenges.

Among those involved in determining California’s water policy, Latino leaders, in particular, will need to be fully informed about our water challenges and more than that become part of the solution. The growing western states Latino demographic demands that.

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